Barangaroo Central goes up for grabs

The NSW government has launched the global search for investment partners and designers to deliver the community and civic precinct of the $6 billion 22-hectare urban renewal project on Sydney’s harbour.

NSW Premier
Barry O’Farrell
launched the search for proposals at a Tourism and Transport forum event on Wednesday night for what he described as the “heart of Barangaroo".

“This is an important next stage in the development of Barangaroo – this will be a competitive process to bring forward the best and most innovative ideas from around the world," he said.

Registrations of interest in developing Central Barangaroo are now open, with the formal call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) to be issued in mid-April.

Some early interested parties may include Lend Lease, the developer of the commercial precinct at Barangaroo known as Barangaroo South. Another is China’s Greenland Group, which has also said it would consider developing the mixed use site.

The NSW government’s Barangaroo Delivery Authority is also asking for submissions from groups interested in making Central Barangaroo their new address, and financing development.

While described as the cultural heart of Barangaroo, the central part of the development will still have commercial and residential buildings.

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Modifications to the Barangaroo master plan, released on Melbourne Cup day last year, propose to double the floor area of the buildings to 120,000 square metres. The master plan still reserves three hectares of waterfront land for active public and cultural space in addition to the buildings on the eastern half of the 5.2-hectare site.

Mr O’Farrell said it fulfils the ­government’s commitment to deliver more than 50 per cent public space at Central Barangaroo.

The modifications were met with a cool response by some in the industry in November, with the Australian Institute of Architects saying public space was being “moved around to suit ­private interests". This was primarily due to
James Packer
’s hotel resort being moved to a spot that was previously meant to be a public park.

The government wants the community aspect of Barangaroo to be built at no cost to the state, and the extra floor space is expected to yield a further $150 million to the return on the site.

The modifications also included a new urban theatre and a passage linking Barangaroo to Observatory Hill to be called the Sydney Steps. There is also a continuous 30-metre wide public foreshore walk.

Former prime minister
Paul Keating
, who has been involved to varying degrees in the Barangaroo project over the year, has previously expressed his disappointment that the buildings were not reserved for the state government.

While there is nothing ­“funda­mentally wrong" with having the site as mixed use, the open space implies a civic opportunity that was almost too good for commercial purposes, he told The Australian Financial Review in an interview.

The development of Central Barangaroo is expected to take place over a five-to-10 year period with Stage 1 public domain works, to be completed in 2015 and works finished by 2021.